Dart Having An Adjustable Barycenter

ABSTRACT

A dart having an adjustable barycenter is provided. The dart includes a tip, a barrel, a counterweight, and a flight unit. The tip is detachable and assembled at a front end of the barrel. The barrel has a receiving space configured inside the barrel. The counterweight is accommodated in the receiving space at an adjustable position. The flight unit is assembled at a tail end of the barrel. The dart according to the present invention is adapted for adjusting the barycenter thereof by adjusting a position of the counterweight in the receiving space.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to a dart, and moreparticularly, to a dart having an adjustable barycenter.

2. The Prior Arts

A conventional dart typically consists of and assembled with a tip, abarrel, and a flight unit. Such a dart usually comes up with a fixedweight and a non-adjustable barycenter in its entirety. Further, aconventional dart may include a shaft in addition. The shaft is oftendetachable and assembled between the barrel and the flight unit of thedart. However, all of these conventional darts are featured with fixedweights and nonadjustable barycenters. As such, a user has to select adesired one from them according to the comfort when playing the same. Inthis concern, when the user wants to play a heavier one later, he has tobuy a new dart. Further, the parts of the conventional darts are mostlydetachable, for allowing the user to remove a damaged part and assemblea new one. However, some users may like to replace the damaged part witha part of a different specification or a different model as desired. Forexample, a user may like to modify a smooth surface of a dart to asurface having complicated patterns. Unfortunately, this may cause avariation of the barycenter of the dart from the original product, andit may even cause the user feeling uncomfortable when playing the dart.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A primary objective of the present invention is to provide a dart havingan adjustable barycenter. The dart is configured with a counterweightdisposed inside a barrel. As such, a user is allowed to arbitrarilyadjust a barycenter of the dart, when he intends to replace a part withone of different specifications, or desires to improve the precision ofdarting by adjusting the barycenter of the dart.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide a dart havingan adjustable barycenter. The dart is configured with a receiving spaceconfigured inside a barrel, which is adapted for accommodating acounterweight having an adjustable weight. As such, the user is allowedto change the weight of the dart. And therefore, the user enjoys asplaying many darts of different weights by purchasing only one, thussaving money spent on those unnecessary darts.

For achieving the foregoing objectives, the present invention provides adart having an adjustable barycenter. The dart includes a tip, a barrel,a counterweight, and a flight unit. The tip is detachable and assembledat a front end of the barrel. The barrel has a receiving spaceconfigured inside the barrel. The counterweight is accommodated in thereceiving space at an adjustable position. The flight unit is assembledat a tail end of the barrel. The dart according to the present inventionis adapted for adjusting the barycenter thereof by adjusting a positionof the counterweight in the receiving space.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art byreading the following detailed description of a preferred embodimentthereof, with reference to the attached drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 includes an exploded view and cross-sectional views of some partsaccording to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the first embodiment after assembledaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 3 includes an exploded view and cross-sectional views of some partsaccording to a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the second embodiment afterassembled according to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is an exploded view of the second embodiment of another playingcondition;

FIG. 6 includes an exploded view and cross-sectional views of some partsaccording to a third embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the third embodiment after assembledaccording to the present invention; and

FIG. 8 is an exploded view of a fourth embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of theinvention and, together with the description, serve to explain theprinciples of the invention.

FIGS. 1 and 2 include an exploded view and cross-sectional views of afirst embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, adart 100 includes a tip 10, a barrel 20, a counterweight 30, and aflight unit 40. The tip 10 is detachable and assembled at a front end ofthe barrel 20. The barrel has a receiving space 21 configured inside thebarrel 20. The counterweight 30 is accommodated in the receiving space21 at an adjustable position. The flight unit 40 is assembled at a tailend of the barrel 20. The dart 100 is configured by assembling all ofthe foregoing parts.

Details of the parts are going to be described in more detailsherebelow.

A front part of the tip 10 is a pin 11, and a rear part of the tip is aconnection section 12. The connection section 12 has an external thread13 configured at a peripheral of the connection section 12. The barrel20 is substantially a column. According to an aspect of the embodiment,a pattern or particular shapes can be configured at an outer wall of thecolumn. As shown in the drawings, according to the current embodiment,the outer wall of the column is configured with a smooth camber surface.The receiving space 21 is configured to be a long and narrow round hole.The receiving space 21 includes a first inner thread 22 configured at aninner fringe of an opening adjacent to a front end of the receivingspace 21. The inner thread 22 allows the tip 10 to be assembled with theexternal thread 13. In such a way, the tip 10 is adapted to berepetitively detached from and assembled to the barrel 20.

The counterweight 30 is fixed in the receiving space 21 of the barrel20, while the position it is fixed is adjustable. According to an aspectof the embodiment, the barrel 20 includes a tenon projected from aninner wall of the receiving space 21 for fixing the counterweight 30 atthe position. The counterweight 30 is a long and narrow column having asuitable weight. The counterweight 30 has a radial cross-sectional shapesimilar to while slightly smaller than that of the receiving space 30.The counterweight 30 further has a longitudinal length which isapparently shorter than that of the receiving space 21. In such a way,the counterweight 30 is accommodated in the receiving space 21, whilecan be longitudinally moved in the receiving space. Further, accordingto a further aspect of the embodiment, the counterweight 30 isconfigured with a plurality of annular grooves 31 at its peripheralouter wall. Each of the grooves 31 is configured at a differentposition. When assembling, the counterweight 30 can be fixed to thebarrel 20 at a relative position, by engaging the tenon 23 to one of thegrooves 31 of the counterweight 30. The counterweight 30 can beoptionally fixed to different positions relative to the barrel 20 byengaging the tenon 23 to different grooves 31. In such a way, thebarycenter of the dart 100 can be adjusted as desired.

The flight unit 40 includes a shaft 41 and a plurality of empennages 42.The empennages 42 are connected to a tail end of the shaft 41. Accordingto an aspect of the embodiment, the flight unit 40 is preferablyintegrally configured. The shaft 41 further has an external thread 43configured at a front end of the shaft 41. Further, the barrel 20 has asecond inner thread 24 configured at a rear end of the barrel 20corresponding to the external thread 43. The flight unit 40 is adaptedto be assembled with the barrel 20 by engaging the external thread 43with the second inner thread 24.

FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate a second embodiment of the present invention.Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, in the second embodiment, in addition to thetip 10, the barrel 20, the counterweight 30, and the flight unit 40, thedart 100 further includes a counterweight block 50. The counterweightblock 50 is configured with a shape corresponding to the receiving space21. When assembling, the counterweight 50 is accommodated together withthe counterweight 30 into the receiving space 21. As known, thecounterweight 30 has a certain weight. As such, when the counterweightblock 50 is assembled to the dart 100, a total weight of the dart 100 ischanged. FIG. 5 is an exploded view of the second embodiment of anotherplaying condition. As shown in FIG. 5, the dart 100 further includesanother counterweight block 51 in addition to the counterweight block50. The counterweight blocks 50 and 51 have different weights. As such,the dart 100 is allowed to be assembled with different weights, and theuser is allowed to obtain a dart with different weights. However, thequantity of the counterweight blocks is not restricted to be two.According to other embodiments of the present invention, morecounterweight blocks can be used, e.g., four.

FIG. 6 illustrate a third embodiment of the present invention. Referringto FIGS. 6 and 7, in the third embodiment, the flight unit is modifiedas consisting of a detachable shaft 41A, and a flight 45, while otherconfiguration is similar as disclosed in the foregoing embodiments, inwhich the dart 100 includes a tip 10, a counterweight 30, and a barrel20. The shaft 41A has a plurality of engaging slots 411, allowing theflight 45 to be inserted and fixed therein. This configurationadvantageously allows the user to more conveniently replace the shaft41A or the flight 45 with shafts or flights having different shapes orpatterns. Because the barycenter of the dart 100 is adjustable, when theuser replaces with a shaft or a flight different from that of theoriginal product, he is allowed to adjust the dart 100 to achieve themost comfort condition for playing by adjust the barycenter of the dart100.

FIG. 8 is an exploded view of a fourth embodiment of the presentinvention. Referring to FIG. 8, according to the current embodiment, thedart 100 is modified with respect to the connection between the barrel20 and the counterweight 30. In the current embodiment, the barrel 20has a third inner thread 25 configured projecting from an inner wallsurface of the receiving space 21. An inner diameter of the third innerthread 25 is smaller than an inner diameter of the first inner thread22. The counterweight 30 further has an external thread 32 configured ata section of the outer wall of the counterweight 30. The rest section ofthe outer wall of the counterweight 30 has no thread configured thereby.The rest section has a smaller diameter than that of the section havingthe external thread 32. As such, the counterweight 30 can beconveniently received into the receiving space 25. When assembling, thecounterweight 30 is rotated by a tool, so as to spirally engage theexternal thread 32 of the counterweight 30 with the third inner thread25 of the barrel 20. When the user desires to adjust the barycenter ofthe dart 100, he can rotate the counterweight 30, so as to change theposition of the counterweight 30 in the receiving space 25.

In summary, the present invention provides a dart having a receivingspace configured inside a barrel. A counterweight is accommodated andmovable in the receiving space. By adjusting the position of thecounterweight in the receiving space, the barycenter of the dart can beadjusted. Further, additional counterweight members can also be employedfor change the weight of the dart. Accordingly, the present inventionprovides a single dart, by which a user is allowed to obtain a darthaving different weights, and an adjustable barycenter, so that the usercan improve the precision of darting.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to thepreferred embodiments thereof, it is apparent to those skilled in theart that a variety of modifications and changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention which is intended tobe defined by the appended claims.

1. A dart having an adjustable barycenter, comprising: a tip; a barrel,a receiving space configured inside the barrel, wherein the tip isdetachably assembled at a front end of the barrel; a counterweight,accommodated in the receiving space at an adjustable position, wherein alongitudinal length of the counterweight is much shorter than that ofthe receiving space; and a flight unit, assembled at a tail end of thebarrel.
 2. The dart according to claim 1, wherein the tip and the barrelare adapted for repetitively disassembling and assembling, wherein thereceiving space comprises a first inner thread configured at an innerfringe of an opening adjacent to a front end of the receiving space, andthe tip comprises a connection section at a rear end of the tip, theconnection section being configured with an external thread configuredat a peripheral thereof, and the external thread of the connectionsection of the tip being spirally engaged with the first inner thread ofthe barrel for enclosing the receiving space.
 3. The dart according toclaim 1, wherein the barrel comprises a tenon projected from an innerwall of the receiving space, and the counterweight is configured with aplurality of annular grooves at different positions of a peripheralouter wall of the counterweight, wherein the position of thecounterweight fixed in the receiving space can be varied by engaging thetenon to different grooves.
 4. The dart according to claim 1, whereinthe dart further includes at least one counterweight block received inthe receiving space.
 5. The dart according to claim 1, wherein theflight unit comprises a flight and a shaft which are integrallyconfigured.
 6. The dart according to claim 1, wherein the flight unitcomprises a flight and a shaft which are independent and detachable, andthe shaft has a plurality of engaging slots allowing the flight to bedirectly inserted and fixed therein.
 7. The dart according to claim 1,wherein the barrel has a third inner thread configured projecting froman inner wall surface of a middle section of the receiving space, andthe counterweight further comprises an external thread configured at asection of the outer wall of the counterweight, wherein thecounterweight is spirally engaged with the external thread of thecounterweight by the third inner thread of the receiving space, so thata relative position of the counterweight in the receiving space canchanged by rotating the counterweight.